A new research report has been launched by CleanHub ranking the top 10 countries that export and import the most plastic waste annually. The top 10 export more than 4.4 million tonnes of plastic waste per year, and account for 71% of all plastic waste exports.

With many governments reluctant to release official figures, highlighting the complicated and shady nature of global plastic waste disposal, the research has been compiled from various key industry and scientific reports for a definitive ranking. 

Some of the countries export and import an enormous amount of plastic waste per year, simultaneously getting rid of the plastic they can’t process, while taking in plastic they can turn into material to manufacture new goods.

Key report findings:

• The top 10 countries export more than 4.4 million tonnes of plastic waste per year, accounting for 71% of all plastic waste exports.
• The top 10 exporting countries are all high-income, developed nations, and seven of them are in Europe.
• Germany, Japan, and the UK are the top three plastic waste exporting countries.
• Netherlands, Turkey, and Germany are the top three importers of plastic waste.
• Many nations have reduced their plastic waste exports over the past year – notably the US by 28%, and Germany by 6%.
• In the last year, Japan’s exports have increased by 7%, Canada’s have grown by 10%, while the Netherlands’ have shot up by 69% in the past four years.
• Around five million tonnes of used plastic are exported each year, 55% of which are discarded.

# Ranking	Top Plastic Waste Exporting Countries	Exported Plastic Waste Per Year (Tonnes)	Top Plastic Waste Importing Countries	Imported Plastic Waste Per Year (Tonnes)
1	Germany	688,067	Netherlands	796,234
2	Japan	606,374	Turkey	622,781
3	UK	600,000	Germany	503,268
4	Netherlands	576,702	US	446,831
5	US	431,841	Vietnam	378,944
6	Belgium	391,263	Malaysia	351,284
7	France	344,367	Belgium	282,980
8	Italy	205,621	Austria	245,079
9	Canada	201,780	Czechia	203,853
10	Austria	174,976	Indonesia	194,130

Exporting plastic waste has become a cheaper way for some of the wealthiest countries to avoid having to recycle, reuse, or properly process millions of tonnes of their own garbage. It keeps their carbon footprints and plastic footprints low, and maintains the impression that they’re progressing towards their net-zero targets.

Instead, they send it to other nations for recycling – while aware that vast quantities of the exported waste are mismanaged through dumping in landfills and/or burning.

The CleanHub report looks at the ongoing legislation around plastic waste, as well as detailing the way plastic waste exports impact the environment through:

• Polluting oceans: 5% of ocean plastic pollution is made up of waste exports, a total of around 635,000 tonnes of bottles, bags, plates, and other waste.
• Polluting countries: exported plastic waste is routinely burned illegally, which sends toxic chemical pollutants into the air, or dumped illegally, causing toxins to seep into ground and water supplies.
• Polluting our atmosphere: the five million tonnes of plastic exports are mainly shipped abroad, which emits 320,900 tonnes of CO2 annually.

Read the full report here: https://blog.cleanhub.com/plastic-waste-exports

‘The climate crisis asks us to imagine other forms of human existence—a task to which fiction is the best suited of all cultural forms… This initiative [The Climate Fiction Prize] marks the advent of a new awareness of the environment within the literary community.’ Amitav Ghosh, author and winner of the Erasmus Prize 2024.

● The Climate Fiction Prize will be awarded to the best novel-length work of fiction published in the UK engaging with the climate crisis
● The Prize will be the first major award of its kind to acknowledge the rapid rise of Climate Fiction as a genre in its own right amid recognition of the power of storytelling to address the crisis
● The Prize, supported by Climate Spring, is worth £10,000 and will be awarded in Spring 2025
● Five judges including the Chair have so far been appointed from across the literary and climate worlds

A new, major literary award, The Climate Fiction Prize, supported by its partner, the climate storytelling organisation Climate Spring, will launch at The Hay Festival this June. The Prize’s aim will be to showcase novels of powerful literary merit and to solidify, grow and expand fiction that engages with the climate crisis.
The prize’s inaugural year will bring together a stellar panel of judges from the literary and climate worlds. Its chair, renowned writer and journalist, Madeleine Bunting, will be joined by fellow judges; climate justice activist and writer, Tori Tsui, broadcaster and writer David Lindo aka the ‘Urban Birder’, non-fiction author Nicola Chester (On Gallows Down, shortlisted for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize) and Andy Fryers, Hay Festival’s Sustainability Director. They will all appear in a panel event to launch the prize to the public at Hay Festival on Sunday 2nd June 2024.

Chair of judges, Madeleine Bunting said:
“Change starts with the imagination and no subject so urgently needs new stories of repair and care than the climate crisis, and the value of this prize is to recognise new talent and help promote it to a wider audience, provoking debate and stimulating others authors to tackle this vital task of imagining what’s possible.”
Lucy Stone, Founder and Executive Director of Climate Spring said: “We are thrilled to be supporting the world’s first literary prize for climate fiction, celebrating innovative writers with new stories. We are in a moment of cultural paralysis where concerns about climate lead to despair not action. Fiction can unlock this paralysis; through storytelling we step into another person’s shoes, or feel empowered by imagining more compelling visions of the future. The climate story isn’t only a story of damage but is a story about the transformation and repair of ourselves as much as the environment.

Website and social: ClimateFictionPrize.com / X: @Climate_Fiction / Instagram: @ClimateFictionPrize

ull Ts&Cs and submissions details will be available from June 2024.

A new mobile app called Ganddee is on a mission to reshape shopping and make
sustainable living accessible. Initially launched in London, the startup has now expanded its sustainability map across the UK.
Ganddee allows users to easily discover and support local ethical businesses, from charity shops to plastic-free grocers, passing by rental shops or vegan restaurants. The app features over 2,200 vetted sustainable businesses nationwide. It works much like Google Maps. Simply open Ganddee and search for what you need – clothes, restaurants, household items. The app will return relevant businesses nearby.
Users can view each shop’s sustainability credentials with one click. Ganddee also provides exclusive discounts and deals to make conscious consumption rewarding. The app is community-powered. Users can recommend their favourite ethical retail business to be added. Ganddee’s team vets each suggestion before publishing listings.

This crowdsourced model enables the platform to rapidly map shops that care about people, planet and profits – everywhere. Ganddee aims to reshape spending by directing more foot traffic towards purpose-driven brands. Whether reducing personal waste or shrinking collective environmental impact, Ganddee believes small daily choices can lead to big change.
The startup seeks to bust myths that sustainability is expensive or inaccessible. Their goal is to empower people across the UK to find and support ethical alternatives.
Ganddee is founded by two engineers with many years of experience in startups and in e-commerce giants like Amazon. The founders are on a mission to close the gap between consumers and the impact of their purchases. By making mindful spending simple, they hope to catalyse a larger transition to a sustainable economy.
Following the appʼs successful launch in London, Ganddee now covers all of Britain and welcomes suggestions from every part of the country to refine their directory of shops.
As Ganddee’s community grows, they plan to reshape consumption globally by inspiring and enabling conscious consumerism worldwide

This articles information / inspiration from April Graham 

Throughout mankind’s  history, we have a tendency to seek out a magical miracle potion in the hope for an instant cure. Whether it be from allopathic medicines or ‘alternative’ methods , humans understandably are drawn to convenience and look for easy fixes that they can  understand and suit their busy lifestyles. ‘Convenience kills ‘ some people say and later when we find out these ‘ miraculous ‘ potions can be dangerous, this makes a lot of sense!

Like some tragic story played out again and again the grandchildren of eras usually suffer the effects of our own willful ignorance and have no doubt that essential oils will be the same.

Many  ‘eco environmental ’ people cannot bear to criticise essential oils . Haven’t we learnt anything ?Just because a product is not prescribed by NHS and is made by a small family organisation does not make it unquestionable.

Let’s be open to learning more information before we consider

1 Plants defence mechanism 

Plants  produce oils that  act as a natural defense mechanism against insects , like natures natural pesticide. The The Oil equals acts as a poison  to insects 

As a plant grows it stores its own ‘’waste” within itself , unlike us humans plants can’t eliminate or detoxify. Essential oils  are often the waste products produced by the plant.

 2 One  drop of Essential Oil = One hundred forty two cups of tea!

 When bottled for human use, essential oils are highly concentrated. For this reason, it is important to be aware that using essential oils is very different from using the whole plant material and only a small amount is necessary to induce an extremely powerful benefit. 

Would you set down and willfully consume 63 pounds of peppermint leaf? 

It takes 63 pounds of peppermint leaf to make ONLY 5ML bottle of “essential oils”.

 There are 20 drops in a milliliter so 20 x 5ml = 100 drops

so just for fun lets see how much peppermint you would have to consume in one individual setting to match up to one singular drop of peppermint “essential oil”.

63 pounds divided by 100.= 0.63 pounds.

How does settling down and eating over half a pound of fresh peppermint sound? Still crazy? Because that’s how much you would have to consume in a single setting to EVER naturally encounter one drop worth of peppermint “essential oil”.

How many cups of tea you would have to drink to match that amount!

An average  peppermint tea bag has 2 grams of dried plant matter in it. You use one tea bag per cup of water.

Are you ready for this?

There are 285.76 grams in 0.63 pounds. 

285.76 divided by 2 = 142.88

So ONE DROP of peppermint “essential oil” is equivalent to 142 cups of peppermint tea drank in a single setting.

This does not change per company no matter how “ethical” or “small” “family run” the company is.

3 Salicylates and Fragrances

Perfume – fragranced products can cause symptoms of food intolerance due to inhaled or absorbed artificial  salicylates.

Salicylates are also present in their natural form in plants. Salicylic acid  protects plants from pests. They act as a pesticide , it is their natural defence. 

Salicylates can be readily absorbed through the skin and can also be inhaled through strong scents like essential oils. Many essential oils happen to be very high in Salicylates 

Some people are more sensitive to salicylates than others and Salicylate Intolerance is becoming more widespread. Sensitive people include those with Autism, Asthma and those with Gut issues.

4 Killing hands on herbalism & ancestor knowledge 

In the current “herbalism” trend  there are thousands of people putting a drop of this, a drop of that, into some oil and beeswax or what have you and Ta Da, a cure all for xyz has been made. But at what cost does this convenience come?

I suspect the price is a rampant loss of connection to the land, respect for the plants, respect for our environment, the further loss of ancestral knowledge of plant based healing.  The death of knowledge and health go hand in hand and both die under the heal of one thing and one thing alone Convenience.

5 “But the Egyptians used them” is what so many people will claim

 Yes Egyptians  did use essential oils , but for the dead not the living . Egyptians used essential oils for mummifying royalty , in the dry conditions Essential oils helped to prevent the flesh from rotting (again like a natural pesticide) 

Definitely not intended for daily use.

6 Essential Oils are no better than someone wearing fragrance

Essential oils emit many of the same toxic gases as synthetic fragrances. These chemical emissions are toxic to everyone in different ways. 

No immediate reaction doesn’t mean they are safe as they add to your toxic load advancing your progression. It’s not a matter of IF you react it’s WHEN.

 7 Second hand ‘Essential Oils ‘

Essential Oils “scent” alone is strong enough to kill your gut flora. 

People think Essential Oils are only dangerous when taken internally and safe when inhaled or safe used on skin etc…However  we already know that tobacco is harmful when inhaled by others

When you breathe in Essential Oils, smoke, whatever, it is absorbed into your blood via your lungs.  Second hand smoke…second hand Essential Oils ..it’s the same principal.

 Breathing in Essential Oils refined volatile oils kills your gut health just as much as ingestion does , because they are so strong in their refined state they are indeed powerful antibacterials. Ingesting them in any manner is not much different than ingesting antibiotics that kill off all of your gut flora.

8 Regulations 

Since “essential oils” are not regulated by in ANY WAY they do not have to disclose this information to you in ANY WAY.

9 Health Problems linked to Essential Oils

Some  Essential Oils are hormone disruptors , linked to breast cancer ,injured babies in mother’s wombs and can even cause seizures. 

Analyzing 350 seizure cases, researchers found that 15.7% of seizures may have been induced by inhalation, of essential oils. 

After stopping use of Essential oils, the vast majority did not experience another seizure.

References

https://www.fedup.com.au/factsheets/additive-and-natural-chemical-factsheets/salicylates

https://www.fedup.com.au/factsheets/support-factsheets/fumes-and-perfumes

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360132312001394?fbclid=IwAR0i16vyU_-NShQd_-jrsOHd1_cDVUvCU017wP9KIOUF_RvPBXUmDzGN_oo

https://www.wildwoodapothecary.org/essentialoilfree?fbclid=IwAR2UdbKV9zRDKvlKkZXLBkO70TKuODtC2NVANBVWa1aqyHNoKKAfxjmvSsE

https://www.doterra.com/US/en/essential-oil-safety-and-application-plant-perspective

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11869-020-00941-4?fbclid=IwAR1lGm3y4sf4i4W_8KyJJCWblkfuuAWuhyLW67gbox7Up3x0_Gs5WhZGybc

Essential Oils are NOT Essential

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33813360